Summary

REALLIFE Magazine: 1979-1990
March 30 – May 12, 2007
Preview: Thursday, March 29, 6-8pm
Opening Reception: Friday, March 30, 6-8pm
Curated by the backroom organizer Kate Fowle
in collaboration with Tom Lawson and Susan Morgan

Artists Space
38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor
New York NY 10013
T 212 226 3970
www.artistsspace.org

Click Here to download a PDF copy of the exhibition brochure, featuring an interview between REALLIFE Magazine organizers Tom Lawson & Susan Morgan and curator Kate Fowle.

REALLIFE Magazine

When Tom Lawson and Susan Morgan started REALLIFE Magazine in 1979 they wanted to make a publication that would be ‘by and about artists’. The first issue was produced while Lawson had a critic’s grant from Artist’s Space, before evolving according to artist’s interests and influences, charting the politics, cultural scene and art practices of the 1980s.

Reflecting back in 1990, Lawson writes in the opening pages of the twentieth issue: “When we first started the magazine the pious rectitude of post-minimalism held sway in the art world, and we confronted that with the shameless thievery and media fascination of appropriationist work. When that in turn became acceptable for the pages of Artforum and Art in America and the walls of the Whitney Museum, we went looking for other artists, other ways of working.”

Curated by the backroom organizer Kate Fowle, in collaboration with Tom Lawson and Susan Morgan, REALLIFE Magazine: 1979-1990 includes artworks, period source material, and documentation of events and performances reflecting on the decade through the lens of the publication and its contributors, including Richard Baim, Eric Bogosian, Glenn Branca, Critical Art Ensemble, Jamie Davidovich, Jessica Diamond, Mark Dion + Jason Simon, Jack Goldstein, Kim Gordon, Group Material, David Hammons, Michael Hurson, Ray Johnson, Mike Kelley, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Ken Lum, Allan McCollum, Paul McMahon, Matt Mullican, Adrian Piper, Richard Prince, David Robbins, John Roberts, Cindy Sherman, Michael Smith, James Welling.

The exhibition coincides with the launch of the publication REALLIFE Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects 1979-1994, edited by Miriam Katzeff, Tom Lawson and Susan Morgan and published by Primary Information (NY, 2007)

For further information contact Hillary Wiedemann at 212.226.3070 x 302 or press@artistsspace.org

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Images of Lawson's Contributions to the backroom